Finding Fortune
by Hot Coffee Chocolate
Summary: Nausicaans attack Enterprise, leaving behind two female human girls.
1. Default Chapter

It was a pleasant day on the starship Enterprise. Captain Jonathan Archer out walking around with his beagle, Porthos. He soon entered Engineering, ready to get a report from that section of the ship. He saw his best friend Command Charles 'Trip' Tucker working at a hatch over to one side of the warp reactor. He walked over to him, with Porthos follwoing behind.

"How are those plasma conduits coming Trip?" He called. Trip turned his head and wiped an arm acorss his forehead.

"They're fine Cap'n. It's only the EPS conduit that I'm havin' trouble getting' into. I can't understand why it won't open." Trip replied as he looked at the Captain.

"I'm sure you'll get them open soon. You always do." The two men laughed slightly.

"Here, Cap'n. Why don't you give it a try?"

"Ok Trip, you're on." Archer replied at he stretched his arm muscles and slightly rolled up his sleeves. He moved over the panel, but a suddenly shudder on the ship cause him to stop dead in his tracks. "What the hell was that?"

"I dunno. But it weren't me engine" Trip replied. Archer quickly moved over to a COMM panel. He pushed the white button and began to speak.

"Archer to the Bridge. What the hell is going on up there?"

"We are under attack by Nausicaans." T'Pol replied.

"I'm on my way." Archer replied, letting go of the button and quickly leaving engineering. As quickly as he had left engineering he entered the bridge. By now the firing had stopped. As soon as he was out of the turbolift T'Pol got out of his chair. Porthos knew where he had to go and so he moved off the bridge and waited outside the ready room."What the hell do want with us?"

"They say they have a human child on board and will return her only if we give them what they want." She replied as she took her seat at the science station.

"What is it that they want?"

"They didn't specify. They cut communications before I had the chance to enquire."

"Charming of them." Archer said as he looked around the bridge at the expression on his officer's faces. He then turned back to T'Pol. "Is it true what they're saying? That they have a human onboard?"

T'Pol checked her scanners. "Yes. But the signal is fairly weak. I would guess that that the person is not well and possibly injured."

"Hail them." Archer said turning to Hoshi. She nodded and worked at her station. After a few seconds the face of a Nausicaan appeared on the screen on the bridge.

"Hello Human. I am Captain Rewdon."

"What is it you want so badly?"

"We need medical supplies."

"Then why did you attack my ship? And why may I ask?" Archer asked a little annoyed at the Nausicaansway of trying to get things.

"No, you can't. Just get us the supplies and we may not kill the human or destroy your ship." Rewdon replied through clenched teeth.

"I'll see what I can do for you. But at least show the child so we know they're ok."

"Get us the supplies now human!" And the screen went blank and then showed the stars, and the Nausicaan ship that was in front of them. Archer moved over to his chair and pushed the COMM button.

"Archer to sickbay."

"Phlox here captain." Came the familiar voice of the Denobulan doctor. "What can I do for?"

"How much of medical equipment can we spare?"

"About a quarter of what we have. May I ask why?" Phlox asked.

"Nausicaans want them. Get them ready and get them down to the transporter." He let go of the button and moved over to Hoshi. "Hail them again." Hoshi nodded her head in acknowledgement and soon Rewdon appeared on the screen again.

"You have what we want?" He asked.

"Yes but first I want you to show the child!"

"Transport the supplies to our ship and we will give you our prisoner."

"They'll be with you in a few minutes." Archer replied angrily. Once again the Nausicaans cut communications and the screen returned to what it was before. Archer nodded at Hoshi and she left the bridge.He thenmoved over to the ready room to let Porthos in.

On the Nausicaan ship two officers moved along a corridor and opened the door to a cell. Huddled in one corner was a young girl, her hands cruelly tied up. Her skin was pale her and her dark hair covered up most of her face, hiding her fear. The two Nausicaans moved over to her and grabbed her arms.

"Please, leave me alone." She said, but they didn't listen to her and they just dragged her out. They took her along corridors and soon they came to the transporter. They pushed her onto it and soon she dematerialised. A few seconds later and the medical supplies appeared.

As soon as the young girl appeared on the transporter pad on Enterprise, she collapsed on the floor, but was still conscious. Hoshi and Phlox quickly moved over to her. Phlox took out a scanner and began to scan her while Hoshi untied the ropes around the girl's wrists.

"She's fairly malnutritioned and she's very weak. We need to get her to sickbay." Phlox said looking at the results on his medical scanner. He then put his scanner away and moved an arm closer to the girl's arm ready so he could help her up, but he didn't want to touch her just yet, not until she allowed them to help her.

"It's all right. We're not going to hurt you." Hoshi said noticing the fear on the girl's face. The young girl looked at Hoshi and with a slight nod of her head she allowed both Hoshi and Phlox to help her stand and they led her off to sickbay where he was able to do scans and she how she was.

They sat her on a bio bed where she stayed silent, holding her hands in her laps. It was slightly noticeable that she was shivering, mainly from fear. They had no idea how long she had been prisoner on the Nausicaan ship, however, in consideration that the shivering may also be due to the fact she was cold, Hoshi got a blanket out from a drawer near the bed and gently placed it around the girl's shoulders. She didn't even seem to notice what the COMM officer was doing.

A couple of minutes later and Archer entered sickbay. He moved over to the table where Phlox was standing, hardly taking his eyes off the young girl on his ship.

"How is she Doc?" He asked. Phlox turned his head upon hearing the Captain's voice. Hoshi did the same and decided to move over to him.

"She's very malnutritioned. I would guess the food they gave her, if any, wasn't suitable to her digestive track."

"How bad is it?"

"I would say she hasn't eaten for … 5 days at least. But I would guess that she has had water… the Nausicaans haven't seemed that hard on her."

"Do you know anything about her?"

"I'm afraid not only that she's human… about 18 years old. She just won't talk. I expect the experience she had has affected her pretty badly." Phlox replied as he looked at the young girl. She seemed to have finally realised that a blanket was around her and she was holding it tightly around her neck to keep her warm. Hoshi could see sadness in the Captain's eyes as he looked at her. Her face bruised and cut.

"When she was beamed on board her hands were pretty cruelly tied up." Hoshi added. Captain Archer took a little sigh a moved over to the young girl. Her eyes were firmly fixed on the floor. Archer bent down so that the girl could at least have a bit of vision of the person who was speaking to her.

"Hello." He said. Her eyes didn't move. He looked at her hands and saw that slowly her wrists were being massaged, to allow the blood flow back through from the tight binds of the rope. The impression of the rope was still visible on the reddened skin. "I'm Jonathan Archer." Her eyes then slowly moved up to meet his. "What's yours?" But he got no reply. She just sat there looking at him. Archer stood up and moved away. He then moved over to a COMM panel. Hoshi and Phlox followed curious about the captain's movements and motives. "Archer to Commander Tucker."

"Go ahead Cap'n." Came the chief engineer's voice after a couple of seconds.

Seeing her chance the young girl slid the blanket off her shoulders and very quietly she left sickbay without any of the three people in sickbay noticing that she had left.

"I need you down in sickbay. I want you to try and communicate with a passenger we have here."

"I'm on my way."

The three of them turned back round to the biobed where the girl had been, but all they found was a blanket.

"This is not good." Hoshi said as she looked around seeing if she had crawled into a corner and was hidden. But there was no sign of her.


	2. Chapter 2

Once again Archer pressed the white COMM button and began to speak.

"Archer to Lieutenant Reed"

"Reed here sir." Came the voice of the British tactical officer.

"Malcolm, we have a slight problem. Our guest has gone missing. Do you think you can try and find her?"

"I'll try sir."

"Don't use phase pistols. She's scared enough as it is… I don't want her to be completely afraid of us."

"Understood." He replied.

The young girl was stumbling along corridors, finding it very hard to walk. She looked behind her to see if anyone was following her. When she turned her head back round she came face to face with Lieutenant Reed.

"Stay away from me!" She cried, stepping back a bit.

"It's all right. We're not going to hurt you. We want to help. What's your name?" Malcolm calmly spoke, hoping she wasn't going to be frightened.

"You're English." She replied. This certainly proved to him that she had been brought up on Earth.

"Yes that's right." He replied. The young girl took a step back, but her legs became weak and she nearly fell over, luckily Malcolm was able to get to her and catch her, helping her to stand. "Why don't you tell me your name?"

"Alexie." She replied. She was beginning to find it hard to stay awake. Her eyelids began to droop slightly as she fought her tiredness.

"All right, Alexie. Let's get you back to sickbay. The doctor there won't harm you, he wants to help you."

"I don't want to go back there." She replied as she tried to pull away from Malcolm's grasp, but she didn't have the strength to do it.

"Why not?" Malcolm was a little concerned as to why she didn't want to be treated. At that moment Trip walked round the corner. Upon seeing the other man Alexie became a bit frightened and tried to get away from him, but Malcolm kept her close to him, supporting her, as she could no longer walk on her own. "Hello Commander."

"Hiya Malcolm." Before Trip had the chance to greet Alexie her body went limp and crumpled onto a heap. Malcolm kept hold of her and quickly put one arm under her knees so her could carry her. Both men quickly took off getting her to sickbay as quickly as they could.

As they entered sickbay and placed Alexie on a bio-bed Archer was a little surprised.

"I suppose Alexie's the girl you wanted me to talk to?" Trip asked as he stood back to allow Phlox to the side of the bed with his scanner.

"Yeah, it was. We were having problems talking to her. At least it seems you managed to get her talking." Archer turned to Phlox. "Do you know why she passed out?"

"Malnutrition. She needs to eat." Phlox replied as he placed his scanner in his pocket.

Archer turned to Malcolm. "We'd better be prepared if they try to attack us again for more medical supplies or anything else."

Malcolm smiled a little as he thought of which reply he would use. "I'll see what I can do." And with that he left sickbay.

"Cap'n. Do you want me to stay here? She didn't seem too scared of me when I was with Malcolm."

"What about the EPS conduit?" Archer turned to face his engineer.

"Finally managed to get it open with Rostov's help... We discovered the power links had overheated a little and cause the metal to glue itself in place."

Archer nodded and smiled a little. "Good. I need everything in working order. Especially if we have another run in with those Nausicaans."

"So, you want me to stay here with her?"

Archer nodded. "Yeah. Thanks Trip."

A couple of hours passed and Trip had stayed by her side the whole time. During the past few minutes it was obvious that she was having a nightmare. She kept tossing and turning and kept calling for someone called 'Eliza'. The tossing increased and suddenly she woke up. She sat bolt upright screaming.

"Hey, it's all right." Trip immediately brought her into a hug to calm her down and comfort her. Phlox rushed out from behind an area as he heard the scream.

"What happened?" He asked getting his scanner ready.

Alexie pulled out of the hug with Trip so that she could answer any questions they had. "It was just a bad dream… about my sister, Eliza." She breathed deeply, trying to get her pulse back down to normal. Phlox placed the scanner back into his pocket as he realised it wasn't needed in this situation.

"Where is your sister?"

Alexie looked at Trip, sadness in her eyes. "She was killed… by Nausicaans, two years ago."

Trip brought her into another hug to give her more comfort.

Phlox took a few steps over to a COMM panel and pressed the white button. "Phlox to Captain Archer."

After a couple of seconds Archer replied. "Archer here. What is it Phlox?"

"Alexie has woken up."

"I'm on my way." After a few minutes Captain Archer entered sickbay. "How is she?"

"Commander Tucker has finally managed to get her talking which has helped me a lot."

Archer nodded and moved over to where Trip and Alexie were sitting. "How are you feeling?"

Alexie looked at the man. She could tell that he was a kind and gentle man, just by looking into his eyes. "Hungry." She said as her stomach growled.

Archer and Trip smiled. "Let's get you some food then." Archer glanced over at Phlox who responded with a nod. Together Trip and Archer helped Alexie off the bed and they left sickbay, making their way to the Mess Hall… for the time of day that it was, the mess hall was nice and quiet. After taking some food and getting themselves a couple of drinks they sat down at a table near a window. "We should get you back to your family as soon as possible."

"Good luck trying to find them." Alexie took a mouthful of food and began to eat.

"What do you mean?" Archer asked after taking a sip of his coffee. He gently placed the cup back down on the table and waited for Alexie to finish her mouthful so she could answer.

"I've never gotten on well with my step dad… and I don't know where my real dad is… my mum went missing 3 years ago and my half sister was killed two years ago. I haven't got any other family."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Archer picked up his coffee again and took another sip.

"How exactly did the Nausicaans get their hands on you?"

Alexie knowing that what she was going to say next would take a minute or two she placed her fork on the plate. Seeing her actions the two men knew what was coming.

"My mum was an astrologer. One day she went off to explore the stars leaving me at home on my own with my step dad. She said she would only be gone two weeks, but after 6 months she still hadn't returned. I was optimistic that she was still alive, although Eliza never believed me, but she wasn't the brave one. We went off looking for her, a ship kindly agreed to help us. We soon found debris from the astrology ship she was on. That's when the Nausicaans attacked. I was able to hide but they slaughtered the whole crew and Eliza. I'll never be able to forget that day. I spent weeks on my own with not much food, but soon a rescue ship came along and took me back home. After I had recovered I was determined to go and look for her again. The E.C.S Horizon agreed to take me so that I could ask anyone we came across. Again the Nausicaans attacked and because that time I was fighting them, they took me prisoner."

Archer and Trip just stared blankly at Alexie. They couldn't believe what she had been through. "Did the horizon survive the attack?"

"I think so… I'm not really sure." Alexie picked up her fork and began to eat again.

Archer gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "We'll do our best to help find her."

Alexie looked at Archer and smiled. "Thank you sir."


End file.
